Richardson Hitchins survives scare from Gustavo Lemos, but he has much yet to prove

Richardson Hitchins put on an entertaining fight with Gustavo Lemos Saturday at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, which was a considerable step up from some of his recent outings when it was more entertaining watching water boil than seeing him fight.

He survived several difficult moments and showed toughness and grittiness in a unanimous decision win over the previously unbeaten Argentine. Judge Tim Cheatham's score of 117-111 favoring Hitchins didn't reflect reality, while judges Max DeLuca and Steve Weisfeld had it a far more reasonable 115-113 for Hitchins. KevinIole.com had it 115-113 for Lemos.

But Hitchins failed in perhaps his most important task on Saturday: Creating the public perception that he deserves to be considered shoulder-to-shoulder with the elite fighters in and around 140 pounds. He was an 8-1 favorite and found himself in the fight of his life.

He became the mandatory for Subriel Matias' IBF title with the win, but he didn't win over the public. The crowd  at The Fontainebleau Las Vegas booed the result and it was met with derision on social media. Cheatham's card in particular, was outrageous.

Promoter Eddie Hearn probably had the best take on the result.

"It was a coming of age fight," Hearn said of Hitchins, who improved to 18-0. "The criticism in the past was he had not been exciting. He just gave us a brilliant fight, and Lemos was incredible. I thought it was a very close fight. I thought 115-113 was a good scorecard, [but] 117-111 is not, and sometimes that can get people riled up."

Lemos pressured throughout the fight and threw far more punches, especially power shots. Hitchins, though, landed at a higher percentage across the board, and that has to account for something.

Lemos appeared to hurt him several times, but Hitchins said he was never in trouble. Still, Hitchins had more trouble than expected in getting it done. 

He probably didn't convince anyone who saw him that he's ready for the likes of Matias, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, Shakur Stevenson, Gervonta Davis or the like. That said, he put on a fun fight, he took some clean hard shots on the chin and stood his ground and he showed the kind of heart and resolve needed to win a world title.

"It wasn't easy," Hitchins said. 

The biggest issue that made it tough was that Hitchins couldn't slow Lemos' attack. Lemos had very little upper body movement and came in at Hitchins winging hard shots. Often, he was able to back Hitchins up and push him to the ropes or to the corner and dole out punishment.

The elite of the elite can make fighters like that pay for wading in repeatedly and Hitchins never did anything to cause Lemos to blunt his charge. 

It was known that Hitchins is quick and has great legs before the fight, and he showed that by using the ring when he needed to and making Lemos miss. Had he had the snap in his punches that could have stung Lemos, it would have been an entirely different fight.

Hitchins in that case would have been able to potshot from the outside, slow Lemos down and use his boxing ability to win a low-stress affair.

Lemos, though, was willing to eat Hitchins' shots for the chance to his own, and that spoke volumes about what he though of Hitchins' power.

The bottom line, though, is that he won and he's going to get a shot at the world championship next. The old boxing adage, "Win this one and worry about looking good in the next one," most definitely applies here.

He wasn't fighting Haney or Matias or any of those elite fighters. He dealt with the issue at hand and he came out victorious. 

But though he wouldn't admit it, he has to understand he has a long way to go still before he's on the level of the top stars in his weight class.